I never want to make any changes to the site without letting folks know about it, so you can decide if you still want to play here or go elsewhere. Some of you may have noticed ads popping up this weekend, rather unobtrusively at the end of some posts. I’m beta-testing simple ads. Since the Playground became self-hosted at the end of March 2011, in the last four months, I’ve gotten over 6 million hits (just for a reference, when I was on still wordpress, I got a total of 3 million hits in 8 months). I’ve had to upgrade my hosting account and get more bandwidth, and that is all fine but remains an expenditure I have to absorb.
To offset some of the costs, I’m experimenting with ads but on a very limited basis. Ads will never generate even the income needed to pay for my monthly hosting fee, but at least Mr. Koala will stop annoying me with his needling that I’m wasting both time and money. As such, if you see ads, do what you will. Click if you want, ignore if you want, but at least I’ve informed everyone. This is also a general announcement that further changes may be forthcoming to accommodate the site growth. If you want to be nice and click on an ad to generate Koala bucks, I am forever grateful. If you want to wish ads to perdition, be my guest. The Playground content remains just me, writing when and what I feel like. To conclude, let Hello Kitty Koala wow you with the Cute.
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Ads are fine. I'll click on some :-)
I just clicked on 3.
Only 2 of them interested me, but whatever. Now I'm checking a loan for a car that I will probably buy in one year. :p
Hahahaha, oh Elina, you are too cute. Please don't click on random ads just to help me. This announcement really is to inform people, not to solicit clicks. But thank you anyways. :-D
You're so considerate Ms ockoala...Ads are fine...;)
Dear Koala, ads are fine. Since you are rewarding me/us with your time, recaps and news, clicking on some ads (randomly or not) is the least we can do. kamsahamnida.
hi koala, i am totally cool with the ads. running a website cost money, so totally do what you have to do to offset the cost. Do you mind placing them in a different position, the placement looks weird a little. anyhow, i love you playground. i will give my up my love for JGS to be a good writer like you.
I tried out different placements and below a post is the least annoying and bothersome, but thanks for the suggestion!
I suggest to include them in the column on the right side e.g. below Tags or (if possible, depending on the contract with the advertisers) below Subscription
I didn't realize you were paying (instead of getting paid) for this website! Just wanna say thank you for all the recaps and making your readers very happy! :) And, I don't mind the ads at all! As a suggestion, if possible maybe you can put ads that are related to K/T/J-dramas, to cater to your audience. :)
I know! I totally want to do that, but right now I can't select the ads. But as I finalize the testing hopefully it'll be tailored towards this site content. Good point, and thanks for pointing it out.
My readers are awesome~
You could ask Dramafever if they are interested by their logo on your website.
Love the Hello Kitty Koala, soooo cuuute!
You can do whatever you wish on your website, I'll still visit - who can resist your amazing, entertaining write-ups? If I could purchase some Jang Keun Suk works by clicking through your website, I will.
Thanks for hosting!
ms.k .thank you for this playground. you know im not good in computer i dont know where to click your advertisement but im happy to give a small donations in your site.just give the details in my email .this playground is my therapy is just right that ill give something.million thanks again.
I was wondering why I didn't see any ads before. All the good blogs/ site's have ads and I'm totally ok with that. I mean you should get something in return for all those amazing recaps and articles you write. So yeah bring on the ads, as long as they are not those anoying pop ups I'm cool. And I realy hope that eventualy you will make more money out of it than you put in to it.
Unni,
Thanks for the update about the ads. Are you mad or something with my previous post, I was just asking :(
and no problem , we can click away and generate as much as possible to keep this good site running.
Isa
Eh, what post, sweetie?
It's fine cuz your blog is my fav.
ads are fine and the way you placed them aren't annoying in the least imho.
You know what you should do? Affiliate with Amazon and yesasia (but please use the global site otherwise I won't be able to help you) like withs2 did. I bet most of your readers buy stuff from at least one of these sites. YA is a personal favorite and since I do buy from it regularly (ahem), it wouldn't be much of a problem to click on your link to buy whatever I need to purchase. I'm pretty sure you'd get more revenue from that than random ads.
Ooh, this is a great idea. I personally don't mind ads in my favorite sites (except when they use seizure-inducing graphics, that just hurts the eyes) and your ads are pretty unobtrusive. But I second the use of yesasia ads or any drama-related ad you might have because I tend to click on it after I read reviews or recaps, or even get news that certain OSTs or box sets have been released. (And plus, it totally makes you an enabler of drama addictions everywhere, lol! :D)
Don't worry Ms. Koala... We love the playground with or without the adverts.. Im gonna click on one every time i visit here... Which is at least 3-4 times a day...
Thanks for doing this... Its a real gift for me (and i know i say this for many people) who do not understand the languages but are totally addicted...
THANK YOU!!! <3 <3
Ummm... May be a stupid point, but, i think the website customizes the ads to suit the visitors location. Coz i can see some ads which seem rather specific to my country.
I think Google "reads" your IP address when putting the ads.